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STORY: Tues. March 3, 2000-a 17 year old named Tommy Congdon from
Charleston, Missouri lead a march on the White House. A heckler told these damn fool
kids to march home to bed. The Little War began. Senators and Congressmen were dragged
from their homes and hanged. Washington was in flames. Rioting took out the first
units of police and National Guards. Aside from Washington the revolution in the
rest of the country was bloodless. Angry young people took over state capitals, county
seats and city halls. The next year marked great debates on how to end the population
crisis. 16 year old Chaney Moon had the answer in London at 400,000 youngsters and
in Paris, the west bank of the Seine, Berlin, he made speeches. He had millions of
followers in 6 months. Most of his people were under 15. 5 years later, Moon was
the first one to embrace sleep at age 21. Thinker was programmed to enforce Sleep.
Eventually all the older people were executed and the first sleepshops were set up
full time in Chicago. By 2072 the world was all young people. Logan and Jess arrive
in Stanton Square, flagged by Francis. They were in Old Washington with monkeys,
macaws, a lion, water, spike thorn trees. And insects and swamps (which Washington
first was). Logan has been stalking game at Bokov's in Nairobi, a restaurant where
the main course was often the diners...he now felt something stalking them here and
now. Then, Logan has a sword. A big bengal cat is shot by Logan but moves off. Next,
an anaconda attacks them. Four raw necked buzzards hung about. Jess says, "Ugh.
There's no safe place! Everywhere we go, things try to kill us!" Logan pulls
Jess back from a nest of cottonmouths. Rain came down hard. A light on Capital Hill...Library
of Congress. Logan shoots a tangler at the cat. A corded muscled, lean faced man
comes out and with a bow and arrow. His hair was streaked with gray and his face
lined. Ballard. Logan fights the tiger off of him. Ballard kicks Logan's gun off
the steps and would have let Logan die. He is a Sandman. Logan's left pants leg is
ripped the knee. Ballard now points at the tiger. Jess launches into Ballard and
throws him off balance. Logan's kick has killed the tiger. The arrow just misses
Logan's head. Logan runs into the library and finds a muscle pad he took from the
cathedral (in issue 1). He inhales the muscle. Logan plucks the bow out of Ballard's
hand and runs back for his gun. Logan tells Jess that Ballard was right in trying
to kill him, that he was never really a runner. He tells Jess and Ballard to sit
down, "I'm going to kill you. I've got to kill you." Ballard tells Logan
he lives one day at a time. When he was born, Thinker malfunctioned and the crystal
placed in Ballard's hand was imperfect. The flower stayed red while he lived and
others died. Logan calls Francis to them. Ballard tells Jess that Logan will never
find Sanctuary of which there really is. People grow old, raise families. Logan lets
his arm drop, even though he told Jess goodbye. Jess tells Ballard, "I knew
he could never do it. You can trust him now." Ballard tells her he cannot...half
of Logan wants to run, escape, live, the other half wants to kill them both and stop
the Sanctuary Line, thus justifying his entire existence. Jess says, "But I...love
him. I can't abandon him now." The final stage of the Sanctuary Line is Cape
Steinbeck and she has 28 minutes to get there. Jess knocks Ballard out. Jess supports
Logan to the Maze car. Logan must discard a life time but he is free now. Logan's
hand flower went black totally. The car stops and they get out. Logan and a sandman
face to face, fire Homers at each other. The two homers meet and the double blast
rocks the tunnel, chopping and spilling the sandman. His gun was screaming, a locator
to the Sandmen. He throws it into a maze car and sets the car off. They switch cars,
a woman shouted. Next platform: police. On the next, a ripper scored a long groove
in the maze car. 15 minutes left. A young 16 year old Sandman, black hair, is at
the next platform--he would believe that runners would always run from a sandman.
Logan attacks him, his torn shirt riding up as he fought, holding the gunarm up.
Logan groins him and drops him. They get to a maze car and go to Pittsburgh: an automated
machine of smog, cinders, grit, and fumes. For 100 years no man had lived here and
no man could. A sandman comes out after them. Francis? Logan hides Jessica into a
hammering metal din and hides her at a wall, "Stay...here." He draws the
sandman away from her. A nitro charge, then a ripper takes out a chunk of wall in
front of him. Logan made a improvised makeshift bola using a spanner, three nuts,
and a length of cable. He pulled himself on to a moving cargo belt and saw the sandman
on a belt moving in the opposite direction. 5 miles an hour. The Sandman fell from
the pinning bola and fell into the chewing machinery of the metal city. Florida Keys:
Jess and Logan emerge as the light was dying. Jessica (Jessica 6-2298) and Logan
(Logan 3-1639) identify themselves to a voice. They have to stop, they were entering
a mine field. A young man in soldier or mechanic cap comes to them with less than
7 minutes left. A long storage building and high crated objects. Titan. Starscraper.
Falconer. Missiles, crated, stacked, abandoned. A passenger rocket to Sanctuary...which
is in space. Logan tells the mechanic-pilot to take Jess aboard, he will try to stop
Francis. Logan tries to tell Francis they were wrong. Living is better than dying.
They were living a lie. Tired of killing. Heart of the system rotten. Francis stood
over him and took off a mask...his face was Ballard. He trusts Logan now. Every few
years, Ballard would need a disguise. And what better role than a Sandman? The only
runners he can help have been those he's been able to reach. He gave Doyle a key
and told him to go to Sanctuary but the Cubs and Logan were too fast for him. It
was Francis on the steps of Crazy Horse...Ballard that is. He tried to stop Logan
then. Ballard only has limited control of the Thinker but it is dying. He is widening
the cracks in the system but there are few he can trust. Sanctuary is Argos, an abandoned
space station near Mars, a small colony now. Jess goes up to Logan, "I...I..."
Jess says, "I know. I love you, too." They sit and the rocket blasts off
over the Atlantic Ridge. |